Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Flash Back: My Birthday in May

My birthday fell on the Friday before Memorial Day this year, so Sean and I took an extended weekend trip down to Atlanta to visit with Luca and Adrienne. It was one of the best (and longest) birthday celebrations I've had in a long time.

It started early on Thursday night, the 21st, where we met up with Jolene and Zack at Bunganut Pig here at home. Nothing like having your best bud come into town for your birthday! (Actually, she was here to see her siblings graduate, but I got to steal some of her time). We hung out with Jo and Zack all night and had a great time together. I made some homemade strawberry shortcake to celebrate the unofficial start of summer. I'm not one of those people who waits for summer to come in June. No, down here we all say that summer starts on Memorial Day weekend, and so it did!

Birthday Cheers!

There's nothing like homemade whipped cream...

with a dash of vanilla flavorin'

Friday the 22nd - my actual b-day - we woke up early and headed to One Stop for breakfast. If you're ever in town, you have to go to One Stop, not just for the good home-cooked food, but also for the experience...and the fried pies. I think it's one of the few places left on earth where they actually say, (as they did when we were there) "Oh, we don't take credit cards but you can just bring us back some cash later, hon." You'll find the "old" Franklin here in this dated cafe - preachers, lawyers, sheriffs - just making slow conversation over some eggs and coffee.

Dad met us at the One Stop that morning so we could borrow his truck (or luxury SUV, if you want to get all technical) for the weekend. We thought the extra room might come in handy for our trip to IKEA...and it most definitely did!

The One Stop

The mini-road trip got off to a misguided start when Sean took the wrong interstate! We made it almost to Alabama before I realized we were heading South rather than due East. But once we got on the right path, it was smooth sailing from there on out. Luca and Adrienne were great hosts and showed us all of the swanky hot spots in the city. First up: some really cool bar where i had the most delicious beer I've ever tried. Sadly, I have the most pitiful short term memory and I can't even begin to name the bar or the beer. But trust me, it was great! From there we headed to (again, forgot the name) a really cute & affordable taco bar for dinner. And as if my birthday wasn't already great, I received some exciting news from work which made my day 1000 times better. I felt like I had won the lottery, which is how everyone should feel on their birthday! The big to-do of Day 1 in Atlanta was the Braves game. We arrived there via train, via Atlanta Underground, via shuttle. I loved pretending to be such a city dweller for the night! (Except for the Underground part...that was gross! but I'm glad I at least got to see it once.)

Sean and me at our first baseball game of the summer

"Poor wittle Bwaves can't make a wittle home wun"

The Braves game would've been a complete bust (score 0:0 in the 7th inning), but I made friends with this hilarious chubby kid behind us, and he had us cracking up. My favorite line was him screaming to our seat neighbors, "HEY LOSERS! WE'RE GOING TO DO THE WAVE!" Dear Braves, when you're outshined by a fat 10 year old trying to do the wave, you may need to reconsider your franchise.

That night after we bailed on the game, Adrienne served a delicious strawberry birthday cake made with grand marnier, which just so happens to be one of my favorite flavors in the whole world! (besides Dr. Pepper) Thank you Adrienne!

The next day was spent strolling through cute neighborhoods and doing a little shopping. Luca couldn't stop raving about this authenic Italian pizzaria called Fritti because, well...he's Italian. So that's where we chose to eat lunch, and Luca does not disappoint, folks. Not only does Fritti's pizza taste OHMYGODAMAZING, but they also spell everything correctly on their real Italian menu. Also, nothing is served with Alfredo sauce because neither Alfredo nor his dumb sauce exist in Italy. If I remember hard enough, I can still taste that amazing pizza in my mouth. I'm not kidding...if I ever get pregnant and start craving pizza, I would totally make Sean drive 4 hours so we could eat at Fritti. On second thought, maybe we would just make Luca and Adrienne meet us half way in Chattanooga.

Anyway, during our day of neighborhood hopping, we stopped in East Atlanta to visit a music shop. This is where I spotted my dead cat's twin. It was a little freaky.

This is what my dead cat Delta would look like...

if Amanda hadn't run over her in the driveway!

Saturday night, as if we hadn't had our fill of delicious food, Sean and I went to a tapas restaurant called Pura Vida for dinner. It started raining cats and dogs about the time we went to leave, so went stayed put and grabbed a seat at the bar. The bartender recommended one of their signature drinks, a pisco sour, and we were instantly hooked.

Sunday, our last day, was spent at IKEA where we racked up on tons of furniture and decorations for the new house. Five hours of wandering through that place made my knees hurt and I was hungry and cranky...very similar to being at an amusement park, except without that dizzy, barfy feeling.

Luca and Adrienne, thanks again for a great weekend vacation! I only wish we had something similar to offer you when you come up here. Instead, we're just a bunch of bad-driving suburban yuppies who enjoy songs like "Boom Boom Pow." Sorry.

1 comment:

Just to clarify, the awesome bar we went to in Decatur was the Brick Store, and the taco place, also in Decatur, was Taqueria Del Sol. Your readers should definitely frequent these establishments if ever in the area.

However, we've already picked out a whole set of new places to take you the next time you come visit. Just remember which interstate to take before you leave.